The question on how to fix America’s existing roadways creates strange political bedfellows. Fiscal conservatives are arguing the same thing as environmental conservationists – that fixing crumbling roads makes more sense than building new ones. Part of the reason why is that people simply are driving less than in the past. Environmentalists in the Midwest are cheering the decision of newly elected Illinois Governor (R) Bruce Rauner for cancelling the Illiana Expressway, a proposed 47-mile link between two interstates (I-65 in Indiana and I-55 in Illinois). Costs for the project…read more

In late May 2015 Texas received enough rainfall to cover the entire state in eight inches of water. Together with the equally saturated state of Oklahoma, it was the Lone Star State’s wettest single month on record. The Oklahoma Climatological Survey said the overall May recorded rainfall was 14.40 inches, by far eclipsing the state’s previous record of 10.75 inches set in October 1941. The rainfall, which spread over ten days, resulted in floods that caused $1 billion in property loss claims and another $3 billion in economic losses. At…read more